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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 09102002 - C166 ev4k TO: BOARD SOF SUPERVISORS Contra FROM: JOHN SWEETEN, County Administrator i Costa a. DATE: SEPTEMBER 10, 2002 County SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO GRAND JURY REPORT NO. 0211, ENTITLED "NUMBER OF COUNTY EMPLOYEES IN CONTRA COSTA COUNTY GOVERNMENT" SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATION: ADOPT report as the Board of Supervisors' response to Grand Jury Report No. 0211, entitled "Number of County Employees in Contra Costa County Governmenf. BACKGROUND: The 2001-2002 Grand Jury filed the above-referenced report on June 14, 2002, which was reviewed by the Board of Supervisors and subsequently referred to the County Administrator and Human Resources Department, who prepared the attached response that clearly specifies: A. Whether the finding or recommendation is accepted or will be implemented; B. If a recommendation is accepted, a statement as to who will be responsible for implementation and a definite target date; C. A delineation of the constraints if a recommendation is accepted but cannot be implemented within a six-month period; and D. The reason for not accepting or adopting a finding or recommendation. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE: 3 ------ ------------- --------------_-----ww- w-'RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMCt N AT[ON OF BOARD COMMITTEE wf"`APPROVE OTHER j z s SIGNATURE(S): ACTION OF BOAajN � � ©, APPROVE AS RECOMMENDED X OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN X UNANIMOUS(ABSENT_-_ _- 1 ) AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE AYES: NOES: SHOWN. ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ATTESTED SeptfflbU 10, 2002 CONTACT: JULIE ENEA(926)3354077 JOHN SWEETEN, CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR CC: PRESIDING JUDGE OF THE GRAND JURY COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT J f BY DEPUTY LF Number of County Employees in CCC Government September 10, 2002 County Response to Grand Jury Report No. 0211 Page 1 RESPONSE TO GRAND JURY REPORT NO. 0211 NUMBER OF COUNTY EMPLOYEES IN CONTRA COSTA COUNTY GOVERNMENT FIN[�INGS -� 1. The number of Contra Costa County employees (on a full time equivalent basis) was as follows on June 30 of the last four years: Year Number of Employees 1998 7,105 1999 7,583 2000 8,090 2001 9,050 2002 9,255 (estimated) Response: Disagree. These figures were reported in the Comprehensive Financial Report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2001, and represent the number of filled positions, including full time, part time, permanent intermittent, and project positions, and do not represent the number of full time equivalent(FTE) employees in the County. The number of filled positions changes daily and is not the best year-to-year comparative measure. A better comparative measure would be the number of authorized and funded FTEs, since this figure is directly associated with the annual budget allocation. 2. During the three year period from June 30, 1998 to June 30, 2001, the number of county employees (on a full time equivalent basis) rose by 27%. Response: partially disagree, in that the reported figures represent not on full time equivalent positions, but the number of filled positions, as described in the County's response to Finding No. 1. 3. The number of county employees (on a full time equivalent basis) relative to the county population was as follows on June 30 of the last four years: Year County Population Number of Employees per Thousand of Population 1998 900,588 7.9 1999 915,403 8.4 2000 930,325 8.7 2001 972,103 9.3 2002 981,555 (estimated) 9.4 (estimated) Response: partially disagree, in that the reported figures are based not on full time equivalent positions, but on the number of filled positions, as described in the County's response to Finding No. 1. Number of County Employees in CCC Government September 10, 2002 County Response to Grand Jury Report No. 0211 Page 2 4. During the three year period from June 30, 1998 to June 30, 2001, the number of county employees (on a full time equivalent basis) relative to the county population rose by 17%. Response: Partially disagree, in that the reported figures represent not full time equivalent positions, but the number of filled positions, as described in the County's response to Finding No. 1. 5. On September 5, 2001, the number of filled positions (full time, part time and intermittent) in the county government was 9,066. Response: Agree. 6. On April 17, 2002, the number of filled positions (full time, part time and intermittent) in county government was 9,385. Response: Agree. 7. The number of filled positions (full time, part time and intermittent) in county government rose by 3.5% over the 224 day period from September 5, 2001 to April 17, 2002. On an annualized basis, the number of filled positions rose by 5.7% during this period. Response: Agree. 8. There are four categories of funding for county employees: A. county B. state C. federal D. other Response: Agree. 9. Comments on the operation of county departments can be found in the annual Performance Report. There is no analysis whether the increase in number of employees has resulted in a corresponding increase in the quality and/or quantity of service delivered to the county population. Response. Disagree. The 2002 Performance Report contains performance data that demonstrates that departments that increased staff met their objectives and increased, in most cases, both productivity and quality of services. For example: r Animal Services: staff additions resulted in an increase in animals licensed by 6% and dogs adopted by 3, a reduction of animals euthanized by 141, and improved response times. ♦ Community Services: additional full-year teachers expanded opportunities for qualifying families, the hourly cost was reduced from $3.74 to $3.68 for more than 5 million hours of care. ♦ district Attorney. additional staff for the Zero Tolerance initiative resulted in the closure of 175 domestic violence cases with a 95% conviction rate. ♦ General Services: staffing increases will enable the stationary engineers to reach the goal of 50% of person hours applied to preventative maintenance in 200212003. Health Services: the department extensively monitors population affected and activities undertaken and, as a result, has achieved improvements to services for target populations and better coordination of multi-agency services. ♦ Library., staffing increases allowed the Library to restore reduced service hours and help towards achieving the goal of 48 hours per week operation countywide. Number of County Employees in GCC Government September 10, 2002 County Response to Grand Jury Report No. 0211 Page 3 ♦ Probation: staffing increases resulted in an overall decrease in juvenile hall population due to better outside placement management, court memos and placement reviews are delivered to the Court in a more timely fashion; increased protection of minors who have parents with substance abuse problems on probation through a newly staffed unit; additional staffing to WNET and CNET, which dismantled the largest heroin trafficking gang and seized six kilos of cocaine; new East County location resulted in more effective supervision, better networking with local police, community agencies, and schools. 10. Additional county positions are routinely approved as consent items at the regular, weekly Board of Supervisors' meeting. Response: Agree, with the clamcation that the Human Resources Department and the County Administrator's C)ffice rigorously review personnel actions before placing them on the Board's agenda. This review includes the justification of need, organizational integrity, financial feasibility, and facilities requirements. 11. The County has no specific policy to monitor the total number of county employees. Response: Partially disagree. The total number of County employees statistic is monitored and reported annually in the CAFR. In addition, the County has a speck policy as to the addition of staff. This policy is that the need for the position must be justified(e.g., mandated, required to maintain health and safety, required to meet workload increases, required for a special project, etc.); financing for the position must be identified; the classification for the position must be organizationally sound, consistent with the County classification system, and approved by the Human Resources Department, and adequate spacelsupport requirements must be identified in advance. The Human Resources Department and the County Administrator review all requests for new positions and present to the Board of Supervisors only those requests that comply with County policy. RECOMMEl'sDA-nON The 2001-2002 Contra Costa County Grand Jury recommends that: 1. The Board of Supervisors report the following to the citizens of Contra Costa County at the close of the fiscal year. Such reporting should commence no later that September 30, 2002 and take place annually thereafter. A. The total number of county employees at the close of the previous fiscal year. Response: Will not be implemented as recommended. However, the County will report in the annual Final Budget document the total number of authorized and funded FTEs, beginning with the 200212003 Final Budget document. The number of filled positions changes daily and is not the best year-to-year comparative measure. A better comparative measure would be the number of authorized and funded FTEs, since this figure is directly associated with the annual budget allocation. B. The source of funding (county, state, federal or other), by percentage, for the employees at the close of the previous fiscal year. Response: Will not be implemented because it is not feasible and not reasonable. The County has no system for tracking the funding sources for individual positions on a Countywide scale, and it would not be helpful in incur the expense for doing so. What is more helpful is to know on a departmental basis the source of financing. The County has and reports that data already. C. The total projected number of county employees at the end of the current fiscal year. Response• Will be implemented. The total number of authorized and funded positions will be reported in the annual Final Budget document and will serve as the projected Number of County Employees in CCC Government September 10, 2002 County Response to Grand Jury Report No. 0211 Page 4 number of employees at the end of the current fiscal year. D. The source of funding (county, state, federal or other), by percentage, for the projected employees at the end of the current fiscal year. Response; Will not be implemented because it is not feasible, as described in the County's response to Recommendation 1(b). However, the County will continue its current practice of identifying the specific funding source for new positions upon recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. E. An explanation of any annual variation greater than I% in the total number of county employees Response: Assuming that the Grand Jury is referring to a 1% growth in the number of County employees from year to year, the recommendation will not be implemented because it is unreasonable. A one-percent annual growth in County staffing is not a reasonable benchmark based on historical annual growth in either population or County staffing. County staffing levels will not necessarily correlate to gross population, as implied in the Grand Jury's Finding No. 4. Staffing levels have a higher correlation to the imposition of federal and state mandates, the opportunity to obtain grant funds, and service demand, which is driven by factors such as socio-economic demographics, the health of the economy, homelessness, crime, substance abuse, access to affordable health services, and health insurance coverage. The County agrees, however, that a recapitulation and explanation of positions added from year-to-year would be helpful to the Board and to the public. Therefore, the County will provide a reconciliation between the total authorized and funded FTE positions from the prior year to the current year in the annual Final Budget Document beginning with the 2002!2003 Final Budget document.